Archive for the ‘Monsignor Kevin Sullivan’ Category

Lent. Forty days before Easter when, through prayer, sacrifice and helping others, we transform our Christian love into action.

Sounds good but how exactly do we do this?

Now — and throughout the Lenten season — we give you our Lenten Messages of Inspiration.

“There are few guarantees but this one I’m betting on,” says Catholic Charities Executive Director Msgr. Kevin Sullivan.”Those who do these three Lenten practices – praying more, sacrificing more and helping others more – will find themselves in a better place when Easter comes around.”

Battling nearly a foot of snow, Catholic Charities New York representatives organized a show of force in Albany on February 9 – 10 to persuade state leaders to expand Governor Cuomo’s proposed plan to combat poverty.

They joined local Catholic Charities affiliated agencies along with the New York State Council of Catholic Charities Directors that represent all eight dioceses across the state.

The troops maximized their strength on these two frigid days by meeting with every human services chair person in both houses of the legislature and with representatives from the governor’s office.

Their goal, to battle back inequality, was overwhelming. But their plan to fund it was simple.

New York State received more than $5 billion in recent settlements with banks accused of misconduct. Surely, they reasoned, a significant percentage of this windfall should be earmarked for the one out of five impoverished families in New York State.

Catholic Charities requests included:

Amplify the Governor’s proposed program to target investments in capital projects to improve the quality, efficiency, accessibility and reach of nonprofits serving New Yorkers

Provide adequate funding for vulnerable populations including foster children served by Medicaid Managed Care

Raise the minimum wage and expand the Unemployment Strikeforce to help the unemployed find work

Push back recent cutbacks in services for the physically and emotionally challenged by providing significant funds for permanent and supported housing

Help undocumented immigrants become taxpaying members of society by enabling them to apply for state college tuition and education tax credits; expand the Office of New American Opportunity Centers that provide immigrant services and increase funds to help unaccompanied minor children seeking to reunify with family members.

“Thank you for assisting all of us to give voice to the needs of those who are poor and most vulnerable,” Catholic Charities Diocese of Buffalo Director Sr. Mary McCarrick said to Luz Tavarez-Salazar, Catholic Charities NY’s Director of Government and Community Relations who helped organize the event. “Now we pray those voices will be heard by our New York State government.”

Shop for your family at ShopRite and help feed your hungry neighbors at the same time.

Sounds like an ad, right? But it’s not.

In New York State, nearly one million children go to bed hungry. And we’re working with you, ShopRite, and other partners to pull together one million meals to feed them.

Catholic Charities and ShopRite are teaming up to help raise money and non-perishable food for area food pantries left with dwindling supplies after the holiday season, the Times-Herald Record reports in a video announcing the campaign’s kickoff.

It’s a time of year when need remains high but giving does not.

So by shopping at any one of 26 area ShopRite stores in the Hudson Valley, you can make cash or food donations to help replenish dwindling supplies.

The collection of food and funds in ShopRite stores will run from Sunday, January 25 through Saturday, February 7.

“This Catholic Charities Feeding Our Neighbors Campaign in partnership with ShopRite,” Msgr. Sullivan says in this new video, “is an effort on our part to make sure fewer children go to bed hungry.”

Catholic Charities, along with Catholic parishes and schools has long welcomed immigrants to our country and most especially to New York. We have helped new Americans adapt to their new home with a sense of dignity and respect. Given this experience, we have been at the forefront of advocating for legislation that comprehensively reforms a broken immigration system to create fair and humane resettlement and integration for those coming to our country. Because of this, we have been saddened again and again by the failure of Congress to pass such critically needed legislation.In light of this failure, we are encouraged by President Obama’s executive action that deals with one part of immigration reform that is at the heart of Catholic Charities advocacy – the unity of the family. By this order, millions of children who are citizens or permanent legal residents of the United States will be protected from suddenly having their parents taken from them and deported. Vulnerability and fear is reduced for millions by this action. Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York highlighted this point from his own personal experience:

“Let me tell you a tale of two Sundays that I personally witnessed. The first Sunday a family of four was praying in my parish church. The next Sunday it was a family of three. The father and breadwinner was deported for a minor infraction that occurred almost a decade earlier. The wife and mother was alone and the children now without their father. No one benefited – not the family and not the nation.” An executive action might have protected the unity and ensured the stability of this family.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York stands ready to help eligible immigrants respond to this new opportunity. We will provide accurate and timely information through our New Americans Hotline. We will also assist immigrants to comply with the provisions of this executive order so they can obtain the new protections and authorizations it affords.

While we are positive about the protections afforded vulnerable families by this executive order, there is undoubtedly more work to be done. We continue to maintain that comprehensive immigration reform is necessary and thus advocating for such will be an ongoing part of Catholic Charities’ efforts.

Looking for immigration assistance? Call us at the New York State (NYS) New Americans Hotline: 1-800-566-7636 (Toll-free in NYS)

Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of archdiocesan Catholic Charities, installs a new member of the Ladies of Charity of New York during the annual Mass and Affiliation Ceremony in the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick’s Cathedral Oct. 18.

“From the way the newly installed president of the Ladies of Charity explained the mission of the organization, there are thousands of potential Ladies of Charity in the world,” writes Juliann Dos Santos in this recent issue of Catholic New York. “They just may not know it yet.”

But 19 new affiliates now know it well as Catholic Charities Executive Msgr. Kevin Sullivan added their names to the rolls of this laywoman’s Catholic Charities affiliated organization committed to serve the poor at an installation Mass held in the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on October 18.

The president, Nancy C. Waters, who was also installed at the Mass and ceremony, was speaking of the type of work with which the Ladies of Charity are involved.

‘Whenever a woman offers tea or speaks to a lonely neighbor, stops to assist a homeless person or even holds a door open for a mother struggling with a stroller, she is acting as a Lady of Charity,’ Ms. Waters explained.

‘Life is filled with Lady of Charity moments,’ she said.

The organization itself was co-founded in 1617 by St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac. It also carries on the spirit of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Service is done in a Vincentian way of helping the poor and the marginalized materially and spiritually.

Tune in to Tiempo on ABC7 for its round-table discussion with Catholic Charities Executive Director Msgr. Kevin Sullivan and New York Immigration Coalition Associate Oriana Sanchez about New York State’s comprehensive effort to fight growing fraud perpetrated against immigrants.

The fraud takes place most often, they say, between established immigrants against the recently arrived. Frequently “notarios,” Spanish-speaking immigrants certified to serve as notary publics, pretend to be attorneys, charge recent immigrants thousands of dollars to help them obtain legal status and then disappear with the money.

Catholic Charities New Americans Hotline helps fight against fraud along with answering more than 20,000 other immigration calls for help each year in more than 20 languages.

“All the things we’ve talked about in terms of fraud just point out how much we have to reform the immigration laws in our country comprehensively so that immigrants get a good deal; so that we can have a place which is welcoming but which is law abiding and in which people can make a contribution to making this a better place.”

As an early step in preparation for the upcoming centennial celebration of The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York – just three years from now in 2017 — executive directors from our 90 affiliated agencies convened last week at the Met Life building. They participated in breakout sessions that focused on and collaborating and networking with fellow affiliated agencies.

“As we approach the Centennial of The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, we reinforce and make clear our fundamental understanding of this federation of agencies,” Msgr. Sullivan said, “independent in governance and management, yet united by a common Catholic vision. A vision which affirms the dignity of each person, of every religion or no religion, made in the image and likeness of God and the priority of our services and resources toward the poor and vulnerable.”

Catholic Renewal raised more than $600,000 at its Fourth Annual Cocktail Reception to assist Catholic Charities in feeding the hungry throughout the Archdiocese of New York on September 8, 2014.

The reception was held at the Kirkland & Ellis Conference Center and honored Alan W. Kornberg, Partner of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, for his steadfast commitment to the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York and the corporate restructuring industry. More than 500 restructuring professionals attended the event.

If you were unable to attend the event but want to make a donation to feed the hungry click here.

“New York state is a national leader in helping thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who have fled Central America for the United States, but more funding is needed to give them a normal life, advocates told state legislators during a hearing last week,” writes Verena Dobnik this week for the Associated Press.

Organizations that provide shelter, legal, medical and social services urged lawmakers at a state Assembly hearing in Manhattan to bolster aid for these children. The Rev. Kevin Sullivan, who heads Catholic Charities in the New York diocese, said the state should invest about $24 million.

‘By investing under $4,000 in each of these kids, we think you can build a future and create thousands of new, productive New Yorkers who are going to be contributing taxpayers to New York state,’ he said.